General advice on moving to Le Vesinet, Paris?

[SarahTwin]

My husband has been offered a secondment for three to five years and its an opportunity we can't turn down. We have been over for a three day trip and found a great house in le vesinet and chosen the malherbe international school for our twin daughters who have just turned 2. (They are in nursery in the uk and love it so we were keen to keep them in some form of nursery education). I will be giving up my job as a lawyer and will ideally take the opportunity to retrain in something I enjoy more than law. Not sure what though.

We move in 6weeks and the nerves are kicking in big time. We don't know anyone in France or speak french yet but are really trying to learn. Is le vesinet the right place to live? Are there lots of ex pats there? I've read mixed opinions on the school and don't know if we should be thinking of the British school of Paris instead? (Luckily the company are paying so fees are nit an issue) or even a maternelle? Are there toddler groups around? Soft play areas?

How easy is it to lease a car? Or should we bring my car over first of all to get us started?

Sorry loads of questions but any general help will be really appreciated. Thanks

I agree that the Malherbe website is not great and needs a huge improvement. I did get a good feel when we looked round but in hindsight i was just comparing it to the nursery they go to in the UK. I wasnt really thinking of it as a long term school. The teacher for the 2 year olds doesnt even speak French and they dont learn french there until the are 4. When i queried it with the headteacher her response was "your children will pick up the language from watching tv and when they are playing with french children". I was clearly having a blonde moment and didnt really consider this until now.

It was such up a whistlestop tour or the school and looking at 6 houses in 2 and half hours that i think i may been a bit hasty in my decision about the school.

Oh that made me laugh, if only it were true. What language do the children speak at Malherbe at home? If there are mainly French speakers, then in the playground, they may communicate mainly in French, but then a 2 year old is hardly going to produce and wide variety of French, you do need to hear French spoken in all its registers and by people of all ages, not just be 2 year olds, in order to learn it! As for learning French through watching it on TV, well it does take a little more than passive exposure, our children watch cartoons in Japanese and another language, yet they've never sporadically come out with with language, when I ask them to repeat what is said, they look blankly saying it doesn't matter if they don't understand the words, they like the pictures.

I noticed Ecole Perceval has mums and tots 0-3 on Wednesdays, any other schools around do something like that in French for under 3s?
www.ecoleperceval.org/spip.php?article91

If only it was that easy to learn languages! I would sit in front of the TV all the time (well if i had time of course- which i definitely don't with twin toddlers).
The Forset international have two spaces in september so i will go and visit the school when we arrive in May and see what i think. Obviously, if the girls go there we cant walk to school but i think that is a rare nowadays anyway.
Thanks for the link.

Is it worth enquiring at this school? It's almost as far from le Vésinet as Forest School is and is bilingual, sous contrat, says 1/3 not French, website in English. They might accept 2 1/2 year olds, it does say so on the website, surely worth asking. It's in Saint-Cloud.

www.ecolemontessoribilingue.com/etablissement/les-enfants.html

Another bilingual school, also not so far from Le Vésinet, says it accepts 2 1/2 year olds.

www.ebmm.fr/1152-Enrollment.php

That's great I'll have a look at those schools.thanks. The girls will be near enough two and half in September so it might work out. My hubby and I have decided tonight to do another look and see trip in a couple of weeks and will go and see forest, BSP and maybe these others. I think I relied on the relocation agent too much to recommend schools. They didn't even mention forest or the other two! The saga continues....

Take a look at the route to work. I see the Saint-Cloud school is not that far from a train station where trains go to La Défense and St Lazare in the centre. There must be many expat families living around there if 1/3 of the school is non French.

Goodness how I dislike relocation agents, sometimes I think they're in the pay of certain schools or landlords, anyone with good internet research skills on the other side of the world and having never stepped foot in France in their lives could probably sometimes do better than a relocation agent who doesn't know their job properly.

PS sorry I think those 2 bilingual schools are actually "hors contrat". Know nothing about them at all, just surfing the net looking for alternatives for under 3s.

im sorry i dont know what "hors contrat" is?
We have appointments now to look at Forest and BSP in the next few weeks so will be coming over for another visit. Thanks for all your help- its been really helpful.
We're now just sorting out the logistics of moving! oh the fun.

There are two types of private school in France: "sous contrat" means that they are under contract to the French education authority and follow French curriculum and are partly subsidised by the state. "Hors contrat" schools are totally independent, are not required to follow French curriculum and are not subsidised by the state so are accordingly more expensive. Almost all of the bilingual schools are "hors contrat" for obvious reasons: most don't follow French curriculum.

Thanks for the explanation.
One last question now i promise- Is it necessary to get our british documents formally translated before we come? Eg marriage certificates and birth certificates etc?

Hi there, I certainly had nothing translated before coming over. If it should transpire that you need something translated at any point you will surely have the chance to arrange that from here.

Just to add to what BD said about sous-contrat and hors-contrat. Some bilingual schools are ^partially^ sous-contrat, and have their French teachers paid by the state... then they pay their English teachers themselves. Also the Sections Internationales (bilingual) schools are mostly state schools with the "international" part tacked on (and the fees are very low). But from what you're saying this last group of schools is not likely to be of interest. Hope I have not misunderstood you or made things more complicated.

I think we are now spoilt for choice on schools! Ideally i want the school to be as close as possible to where we are living as i imagine the friends the girls make will also be living close by which makes it easier for playdates etc. I will stick to viewing Forest and BSP and see how that goes.
I'll leave the documents then and if and when we needs them done i will get them translated when we are there.
The house we are going to rent seems to have everything apart from a washing machine and dryer- I presume ours from the UK will work but we just need to change the plugs? They are Bosch and only a couple of years old.
Is this the same as TV's? is it easy enough to get sky tv? or do we need to still subscribe in the uk to get the card?

Where in Le Vesinet will you be? I know of at least 1 school which has a TPS but you need to live practically in the doorstep. I don't know what the inscription dates for schools are this year either. Feel free to PM if you don't want to say on here.

We spend a fair bit of time in Le Vesinet although we actually live in Normandy and my DS is a couple of months younger than your DDs :) The parks are just beautiful and it's a nice friendly area with plenty of expats. It can be a bit transient but you get some longer term residents too.

Hello, I used to live in Le Pecq which borders Le Vesinet but have now moved to the other side of the river and across the forest but will be more than happy to meet up and help in any way you need when you get here. My DD2 is 2.4 and would love a couple of new friends to jump in muddy puddles with .

We are by the park with the lake and playground if that helps. I'm embarrassed to say that i dont remember the street name and my husband has all the information at work. There is probably more than one park with a lake as well lol.

Zimbomaman- That would be great to meet up thank you. My two love puddles! I will PM you.

Sarah you can get sky but I think only through the computer? Ill find out from dh, we have it but not sure on the logistics.

Let me know the dates of your next trip, we shall try to arrange something. Will you be bringing the twins? If so we could maybe do a picnic at the local park or something?

We are 5 mins walk from that park

Us too when we're there :)

It's a wonderful area and depending on which bit potentially not far from the school with the TPS.

Thinking about it Sainte Odile in Le Vesinet has a TPS class. When DD was there in PS she was in a mixed PS/TPS class. It was a lovely school, too.

This is a rather interesting link, an email of an English speaking parent at Ste Odile!
www.ecole-sainteodile.org/welcome-to-sainte-odile/

This is another Catholic school near where you'll be living, Ste Jeanne d'Arc.
ecolesaintejeannedarc.fr/

This is a list of the 5 public maternelles in le Vésinet, you would normally be allowed to enrol in the one allocated to your address. For Catholic schools, it's not dependent on address and there are small fees, nothing like Malherbe or the other hors contrat schools.

www.levesinet.fr/le_vesinet/menu_haut/jeunesse__education/vie_scolaire/etablissements_scolaires_publics_1

There is a company called city sat who can install sky tv for you and provide a subscription address if you need one, you can spot the expat homes around Le Vesinet and Croissy by the sky dishes on the roof!

Sarah, it is a genuine offer so don't hesitate to contact me. I know what it's like arriving here with a little one, not speaking French and endless hours of waiting for DH to come home from work. There are plenty of parks, pick your own fruit farms, soft play areas etc in the area but you will need a car to get to most of them. You'll be arriving at the best time of the year to meet people whilst out and about in the parks or forest so don't worry about being isolated at home with the girls. I registered at the local 'Maison pour tous' when we moved here to learn French. Volunteers teach newcomers for free on a one to one basis in a really relaxed way. My lessons were given at home. After covering the basics we just talked and the grammar was explained depending on what our conversation was about. That was all a very long time ago but I should imagine that the voluntary system still exists.

Thanks for all the extra info on the other schools. I will have a look at them.
Im glad we will be able to get Sky and i think there is already a dish on the house that we are renting so hopefully it will be pretty straightforward. We'll need the subscription address as we are going to rent our home in the UK.

Barbie- We are trying to sort out our next trip at the moment by my DH is so busy at work that he's finding it hard to get the time off. We wont bring the girls with us though as flying with them is like a military operation! if they could learn to sit still for two minutes it would help.

Zimbomaman- It will be a change for me even having my DH come home as for the last 5 years he has lived away in the week and just come home on the weekends. I just hope i like living with him lol.

Fraktion- how aften are you in Le vesinet?